The Best Air Fryers of 2021

Unlike most of these appliances, the Cuisinart Compact AirFryer isn’t oddly shaped like a huge egg or space capsule. Rather it’s a big stainless-steel cube that looks like a truncated toaster oven. While its boxy shape helps it fit more neatly on a countertop or in a cabinet, the Cuisinart still takes up a bit of countertop real estate (in spite of its name).

You’ll find the Cuisinart is a relatively uncomplicated appliance in terms of heating elements. It doesn’t have cooking preset programs for specific foods or additional cooking functions like “keep warm” or dehydrate, to make the cooking process easier. You simply turn dials to set the temperature and the cooking time, and there’s no need to preheat. There’s also a straightforward manual that includes recipes to get you started.

Since it has a wide air frying basket, food can be spread out to get more even and crispy results with relatively quick cooking times without the food drying out. Most others force you to pile the food on top of each other, which can create uneven results. Using the Cuisinart Compact AirFryer, homemade fries looked and tasted like they had been bobbing in a deep fryer vat of oil.

Neither the stainless-steel basket nor the drip pan is dishwasher safe, so it’s not necessarily easy to clean. When you cook drippy battered items like tempura shrimp or onion rings, you may need to use a little effort to get them spotless. However, if you’re looking for an appliance to air fry and do it well, and don’t want to pay an exorbitant amount, this Cuisinart is well worth your consideration even though it wasn’t our top pick.

Food comes out browned and crispy from the Dash Deluxe 6-Quart Air Fryer as long as you don’t overload it. Although it’s dubbed a 6-quart model, the basket has a small diameter so it holds less food in one layer than larger models, like the Philips Airfryer XXL.

While this model doesn’t have digital controls, it's very simple to operate; simply turn the temperature and time dials for a two-step process that’s totally intuitive. If you’re tired of boring-looking appliances, the Dash comes in glossy red or aqua as well as white and black.

Even though you have to hand wash the baskets, they're nonstick and easy to get clean.

The Ninja Air Fryer performed so well, you could have convinced me that both breaded and battered chicken pieces were fried in a cast iron skillet.

French fries came close to the real thing but didn’t have quite the allover crunch that you get from a fryer or the Philips (which can even crisp up a whole bag of frozen french fries at once). However, the Ninja is about a quarter of the price of the Philips and is nowhere near as big or heavy.

On the Ninja, you’ll find digital temperature controls and settings for reheating, roasting, and dehydrating. More options make for more complicated programming but after a few cooks, you’ll easily master the necessary steps. The nonstick-coated basket can be chucked in the dishwasher. With this appliance, you also get a stainless-steel rack for multilevel cooking.

I admit to having had a healthy dose of skepticism when it came to the Ninja Foodi, an appliance that in addition to being an air fryer is also a pressure cooker and a slow cooker.

Well, I’m here to tell you that it not only does both, but it also does them both well. In fact, it cooked the crunchiest, most well-browned results in our cook-off, plus it pressures cooks as well as any I’ve ever tested.

If you like, you can even combine the two functions, pressure cooking a chicken and then browning and crisping the skin on the air-fry setting. Additional programs on the Foodi allow you to broil, dehydrate, steam, slow cook, and sauté, making it the most versatile multicooker on the market. One thing of note: During air frying mode, it’s noisier than most.

As you would expect with so many options, it takes a little practice to get a hang of programming the digital control panel. However, the screen is well designed with large easy to read lettering.

The Foodi is space-saving compared to owning both an air fryer and a multi-cooker, but it is a large, heavy appliance that you won’t want to be lifting in and out of a cabinet. It’s worth giving it a dedicated place on a countertop if you plan to take advantage of its versatility and use it often.

Considering the multi-functionality of this machine, I wish the cookbook that comes with it was better organized and had recipes and charts for all of the cooking functions. The basket and the pot are nonstick coated and safe for dishwasher cleaning, but the lids require TLC.

This little guy is just so darn cute you can’t help loving it (It's probably why so many Amazon reviewers go gaga for it). The Dash Compact does a decent job of “frying” as long as you confine it to about a half-pound of food at a time. No preheating is required but, to achieve great results, you need to toss or turn items a few times during cooking.

With its dial temperature controls, you can’t set the Dash precisely. For the most part, the manual is helpful and even includes a few recipes, but some of the temperatures specified in the charts and recipes are different from the ones printed on the machine. You have to guess where to set the dial between 320° and 400°F if you want to cook at 350° or 390°F.

The basket has a nonstick coating and is small enough to go in the dishwasher without hogging too much space. You can choose the Dash with a glossy red, aqua, white, or black exterior.

You pay top dollar for the handsome brushed stainless-steel Breville Smart Oven Air, but you get a state-of-the-art toaster oven in addition to an air fryer, which consistently turned out crispy food and chicken nuggets that tasted fried. The digital temperature controls are intuitive to program and include automatic preheat. The Breville also has a bright oven light.

Although it’s large even by toaster oven standards, it can truly replace your oven. No need for special toaster oven-sized cookware here. And Breville claims it can accommodate a 14-pound turkey.

I do have one major quibble with this product. The manual doesn’t contain any recommendations for what, how much, or how long to cook various foods. This may not be a problem for baking or roasting, but if you’re new to air frying, you’re on your own when you’re getting started. Also, keep in mind all of the parts require hand washing.

The GoWise 8-in-1 does very well and has some nice advantages. In addition to a large capacity, it has digital controls with eight preprogrammed settings (hence the name) and an alarm that you can set to remind you to toss food during cooking.

It doesn’t require preheating and the basket is both nonstick coated and dishwasher safe. With the GoWise USA, you get a cookbook to give you lots of recipe ideas. In addition to black and white, you can choose from red and purple housing.